Czechia & Slovakia

This is so interesting. On the train ride down to Bratislava in Slovakia, I was doing some reading about the difference between the Czech Republic (Czechia) and Slovakia. I had always thought of them as pretty much the same — two parts of the former Czechoslovakian republic whose languages are very similar. Then I read that Czechia has the highest percentage of atheists in Europe while Slovakia ranks up there with Poland and Ireland for percentage of people who declare themselves to be Roman Catholic. Interesting — a mystery of human geography — right up my street (as the Brits would say). So I started to look for the reason for these two very closely related cultures to be such polar opposites. Turns out the answer lies in their historical ties to Austria and Hungary. I found an article from a historian who explains it like this: both countries were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which collapsed at the end of WW I after being ruled by the very Catholic Hapsburg dynasty. The Slovaks closely aligned themselves with the Hapsburgs and Austria while Bohemia (Czechs) aligned with Hungary. When the empire collapsed, Czechs saw the religion as a part of Hapsburg (and Austrian) domination and rebelled against it, while Slovaks saw no need to rebel against Austria, so there was no revolt against Catholicism. It’s that “geography is destiny” thing again. Vienna is 30 miles from Slovakia’s largest city, Bratislava, and the Slovak people had felt more of a threat from Hungary. They were in fear of the “Hungarianization” of Slovakia and kept close ties to Vienna. These ties to Austria meant identifying with Catholicism while the Czechs’ national identity lay in the exact opposite, a revolt against everything Austrian, including the religion. Tonight, I decided to put it to the test, so I went to mass in the center of Bratislava. It was an eye-opener. I expected to see what I saw so often in Spain — a few devout old ladies sprinkled throughout the church for Friday night mass in their usual formation within the pews. Not at all. It was packed. Standing room only, and the genuflecting was on a level I can only compare to my Greatest Generation aunts and uncles. Knees hit the stone floor hard and fast. As soon as each person entered the church they went straight for the holy water and hit the deck. There was no half-hearted dips or self-conscious bows. These guys were committed. I saw a younger man bless himself for the reading of the Gospel in a prolonged gesture of devotion I think I could only compare to something you’d see in a mosque. Everyone, to a man, did the sign of the cross on the head, lip, and heart, but his was longer, more drawn out and even elegant, while he clearly and loudly recited the prayer that accompanies the gesture. This was not a sprinkle of little old ladies either. It was a wide range of ages — families, young adults, teens, and men of all ages — lots of men. That was not the case in Spain. Of the small group that went to a week night mass, few were men, and there were few families or younger people. Slovakians impressed me tonight. I love how Catholic they are. And while I know my little experiment is nowhere near scientific, it demonstrated to me exactly what that historian was theorizing. Geography, People! It’s a powerful thing!Read more